Planet for NR

Orchestrating network performance | www.infovista.com

Orchestrating network performance |
Outline

• 5G Standardization and Deployments Timelines

• Overview of 5G NR Radio Access
• LTE & NR Coexistence
• NR Frame Structure
• 5G Network Planning
• Millimeter Wave Propagation
• Beamforming & Massive MIMO
• LTE Pro Evolution
• NR

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 Standardization & Deployments

STANDARDS Rel. 15 Rel. 16 Rel. 17

Standalone Mode (SA)

Non-Standalone
Mode (NSA)
DEPLOYMENTS Rel. 15 NR

2017 2018 2019 2020

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 Overview of 5G NR

The information related to 5G NR in this document is subject to

change in 3GPP specifications

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5G Deployments – Use Cases

Services Applications Constraints

URLCC: V2X, Remote Reliability, latency

Critical Manufacturing, e-
MTC Health…

Internet of Things:
Cost, Battery life,
Massive transportation,
Number of devices
MTC logistics, energy,
environment…

Capacity, data
Mobile Broadband, Fixed rates, QoE
eMBB
Wireless…

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Five Technology Inventions that Define 5G NR

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Non-Standalone vs. Standalone NR MME S-GW
Control Data

S1-U
• In the Non-Standalone (NSA) mode, for which
S1-MME

standard completion happened at the end of

2017, NR serves as capacity boost in dual
connectivity mode, when LTE handles the eNB
X2-U
gNB
control plane X2-C

Non-Standalone Architecture (Option 3x)

• Initially, gNB is directly controlled by eNB in the
lower frequency band (no need for a 5G Core)
5G CN
• Data transfer is split between LTE and NR
Control Data

• Standalone deployment require a 5G CN

(planned for mid-2018) and will enable network gNB
slicing
Standalone Architecture (Option 2)

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LTE & NR Coexistence

• LTE and NR can coexist on the same

LTE NR Frequency Multiplexing spectrum, e.g.
• Dynamic coexistence by transmitting NR
signals in :
• LTE MBSFN subframes (only last 12
Coexistence within the
same Spectrum symbols to avoid control region)
• LTE UpPTS region of special subframe of
UL subframes (avoiding SRS)
• LTE DL subframes (avoiding CS-RS)
Coexistence within the
same Spectrum AND • Semi-static coexistence based on carrier
Carrier Aggregation aggregation techniques
Primary Secondary

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 LTE & NR
NR Frame Structure Coexistence

1 frame = 10 ms

1 subframe = 1 ms

Flexible Unified Design

Numerology across Bands, TDD
Mobile vs. FDD, Licensed
Broadband vs. unlicensed
(eMBB)
Complex and
Massive IoT Future-Proof
Framework
Ultra Reliable Low
Latency Designed for eMBB,
Communications URLCC, Massive
(URLLC) IoT and Beyond

Scalable TTI

9
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Flexible Numerology and Scalable TTI Similar to LTE and
applicable to outdoor
macro coverage

• The subcarrier spacing (fixed at 15kHz in

LTE) can take any of the following values Subcarrier Number of
and vary within the same frame Spacing slots per 1 slot per subframe

subframe
• 12 subcarriers per Resource Block
15 kHz 1 4 slot per subframe

• The symbol duration is inversely

proportional to the subcarrier spacing 30 kHz 2

• 14 or 12 symbols per slot (normal vs. 60 kHz 4 32 slots per subframe

extended cyclic prefix)
120 kHz 8
• The number of slots depends on the
subcarrier spacing 240 kHz 16

• With large number of slots per subframe, 480 kHz 32

the TTI length is highly flexible
Scalable TTI
Very large bandwidth (up to
400 MHz in higher bands
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Self-contained Subframe

• LTE has a fixed TTI length and separate ACK/NACK transmissions, which leads to a long
ARQ roundtrip time

• In 5G NR, a slot can contain only downlink, only uplink, or a mix of downlink and uplink data

• As such, a subframe can be configured to reduce latency in case of critical communications

Reference (Tx)

Control Data ACK

GP
Data (Tx)
(Tx) (Rx) (Rx)

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Slot Aggregation

• Slots can be scheduled/aggregated when necessary

• Typically for services that do not require low latency but require reduced overhead for
higher capacity (e.g., eMBB services)

Aggregated Data Data Data Data Data Data Data Data Data Data Data Data Data Data Data Data Data Data
(Tx) (Tx) (Tx) (Tx) (Tx) (Tx) (Tx) (Tx) (Tx) (Tx) (Tx) (Tx) (Tx) (Tx) (Tx) (Tx) (Tx) (Rx)
Slots

Slot 0 Slot 1

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Resource Grid
1 subframe = 1 ms 1 frame = 10 subframe = 10 ms

Min. Size
Numerology) – Maximum Size
Carrier Bandwidht Part (Fixed
Resource Block

12 subcarriers

Resource Element

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Network Access 1 slot = 14 symbols
1 symbol

• The synchronization signal (PSS and All 5G NR UEs must

SSS) is transmitted in SS blocks along support at least 24
PRBs
with the Broadcast channel (PBCH),
at a fixed location (irrespective of
duplexing mode) on a slot

24 PRB

12 PRB

PBCH

PBCH
PSS

SSS
• SS blocks are organized as SS bursts
that are sent periodically (e.g. every 5
ms)
• As in LTE, the SS is used for initial cell
search and the PBCH provides basic
system information to Ues
Only 4 symbols for
fast acquisition time

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 1
2
Pattern 3
Reference Signal

1 Resource Blocks = 12 subcarriers

• 5G NR does not include the Cell-Specific
Reference Signal (CS-RS) but the
• Demodulation RS (DMRS)
• Phase-tracking RS (PTRS), to
compensate for oscillator phase noise
at high frequencies
• Sounding RS (SRS), for scheduling and
link adaptation in the uplink
• Channel State Information RS (CSI-RS)
• DMRS is UE-specific, supports 1 slot = 14 symbols

beamforming and is transmitted only when

Control
necessary
DL DMRS
PDSCH
Not PDSCH

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 Pattern 1
2
Reference Signal

1 Resource Blocks = 12 subcarriers

• 5G NR does not include the Cell-Specific
Reference Signal (CS-RS) but the
• Demodulation RS (DMRS)
• Phase-tracking RS (PTRS), to
compensate for oscillator phase noise
at high frequencies
• Sounding RS (SRS), for scheduling and
link adaptation in the uplink
• Channel State Information RS (CSI-RS)
• DMRS is UE-specific, supports 1 slot = 14 symbols

beamforming and is transmitted only when

Control
necessary
DL DMRS (Port 1) DL DMRS (Port 2)
PDSCH
Not PDSCH

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Hybrid Beamforming and Massive MIMO

• Reduce the hardware complexity and

W1
power consumption vs. Digital RF

Beamforming (especially with the

large arrays required for Massive
Precoding
MIMO, up to 256 elements)

• Reduce the number of RF chains and

errors of Analog Beamforming RF W2

• Allows supporting the Massive MIMO

evolution with the performance of
Digital Beamforming and simpler Digital Beamformer Analog Beamformer
hardware

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5G Network Planning

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Millimeter Wave Propagation

• A number of use cases already exist and do not

require the precise definition of a new Radio
Access Technology to proceed with the
necessary design exercise
• Nevertheless most of these use cases rely on
millimeter propagation that must be accurately
modelled in planning tools
• Example: Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) can be
used as a replacement for FTTH for last mile
connectivity, with a new number of benefits
(equipment and deployment cost, usage fees for
utility networks…etc.)

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Millimeter Wave Propagation

• Pathloss naturally increases with frequencies, turning coverage above 10GHz into a massive
• Above 10 GHz, new propagation phenomena must be taken into accounts
• Rain and Atmospheric Gases Attenuation
• Foliage Loss

1.9GHz 28GHz 39GHz 60GHz

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Millimeter Wave Propagation

• Support of Forest/Trees in polygon

format or based on clutter types

• Trees/Forest are now modeled with a

pass through loss
• As opposed to being treated like
obstacles
• Pass through loss depends on
frequency and distance through the
Forest/Trees

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Beamforming & Massive MIMO

• If 𝑁→∞, the M-MIMO Gain is maximized whereas the 64 elements

uncorrelated interference and thermal noise are
canceled, based on the Law of Large Numbers

• Use of large antenna array implies simplified signal

processing at the eNodeB (Digital Beamforming)

• Statistical approach to determine M-MIMO SINR through:

• The structure of the M-MIMO antennas (e.g., number of

elements)

• The location of the terminals (e.g., the angle of arrival

(AoA))

• The Ricean K factor (to find the LOS and NLOS

components) and the Slow Fading coefficient

• Deterministic approach requires knowledge of path

diversity, i.e. delay spread and angle of arrival/departure
16 elements

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3D Beamforming / Beam-Steering

• Deterministic algorithms for

beamforming and beam-switching
antennas (in 3D)

• Planet Antenna editor

• Full support of beamforming and
beam-switching antennas
• Ability to create “traffic patterns”
based on user-defined weights or to
direct beams towards specific
direction (in both horizontal and
Beamforming Algorithm
inclination planes)

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Beam-steering / Beam-switching Pattern Creation

Beams-steering / Beam-switching
Pattern Creation

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Lean Carrier (LTE Pro)

• Reducing unnecessary signaling and related

interference

• Cell-Specific Reference Signal: Reduce transmission to

a portion of the resource blocks
Regular LTE Carrier
• In HetNet deployments with dual connectivity (with or
without 5G NR), the low-power node can shut down CS-
RS transmissions

• One challenge is to maintain a minimal level of CS-RS

for synchronization and cell search purposes in LTE
Lean LTE Carrier

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NR in Planet 7.0

• Support for all major Radio Access

Wi-Fi Technologies
LTE IoT
• Multi-vendor and multi-technology
platform
WiMAX 5G NR

• Support for all stages of the network

Planet lifecycle
iDEN WCDMA

• Modern platform that delivers ease of

Cdma2000 GSM use, high performance and
LMR
Tetra robustness to engineers
P25

Planet Technology Modules

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NR Network Analyses

• NR specific simulation engine with downlink and uplink analysis

• Support for TDD and FDD duplexing modes
• Standalone and Non Standalone modes
• Support for Numerology
• Massive MIMO
• 3D analyses
• Multi-band analyses
• Multi-threaded

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NR Network Analysis Layers

• Coverage
• Best Server
• SS-RSRP, CSI-RSRP
• Interference
• SS-RSRQ, RSSI
• PDCCH CINR, PDSCH CINR, PUSCH CINR
• CQI, DL/UL best available modulation, etc.
• Data Rates
• PDSCH/PUSCH maximum and achievable data rate

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SS-RSRP Example in San Francisco

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NR Dimensioning & Cell Selection

5G
5GNR
NRCell Selection––200
CellSelection 130
160
90
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Sites/gNBs
Neighbour Planning

• Intra and Inter-technology

• E.g. NR <-> LTE
• Intra and inter-carrier neighbour lists

• Support for multiple neighbor Plans

• Visualization of neighbors in map

window

• Graphical Neighbor Plan Editor

Visual presentation of neighbor list for cell E0295_1

Orchestrating network performance |

Thank you!
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Orchestrating network performance |